Thigh Ache When Sitting

61 years ago, the slaughter of Torremaggiore

Tomorrow remembers a massacre of disconcerting news

Tomorrow do 61 years from a painful and dramatic event that marked the history of Italian peasant struggles: the massacre of Torremaggiore of 29 November 1949. With the killing of Melissa and Montescaglioso, as well as with the dead of Modena just two months later, is a black page in the history of war.

The massacre was the second of a two-day general strike. For months, the entire Capitanata was the center of a national mobilization for the wages, employment, land reform, for the rights. A protest that those laborers, despised by landowners and masters, were splitting their backs to bring up the bread to give to their children. A world well-told by the songs of aching Matteo Salvatore. On 29 November

torremaggioresi laborers were before the Chamber of Labour to listen to the speech of the local secretary of the CGIL. He was first ordered them to disperse from the local Police Station. Then came the swift from San Severo, the infamous police forces of the Interior Minister Mario Scelba, who fired into the crowd cold. On the ground remained Antonio and Giuseppe La Vacca Lamedica. The first died immediately, the second was wounded and prevented the police for help, so that he died.

An attempt was made to forbid public funerals were held. But it was not possible: a long and painful march through Torremaggiore to bring the poor remains to the cemetery. To head a great character in the Italian history and the labor movement: Giuseppe Di Vittorio.

Remember the murder of The Cow and lamed, not only because it is an episode in our history. But also because, at a time when the world of work in Italy is increasingly characterized by insecurity and exploitation, in which the purchasing power of wages is increasingly eroded, in which the rights are challenged, remember where we come from and where we could come back. The struggles of our grandparents have led to greater social justice, but today, day by day, we see that parts of those rights that they have won with blood, there are removed. When we say "so there's nothing to do" or that "the world is so much" we reflect on the sacrifice of those who lost their lives for our rights.


For those who want to know more: Michael Marinelli, "The struggle for the land and the slaughter of Torremaggiore captains," Teti, 1978.